The first wave of NBA 2K27 ratings is out, and the Golden State Warriors have a few numbers that look off.
Stephen Curry landed at 93 overall, tied for the ninth-highest mark in the game, and that one tracks. Jimmy Butler at 85, Gui Santos at 78 and Al Horford at 77 also feel in the right neighborhood.
But not every Warrior got the same treatment.
There are three players in particular who came in lower than they should have, starting with rookie Alex Toohey Lendeborg. NBA 2K has a habit of burying rookies before they’ve played an NBA game, and that part is easy to live with. The issue here is how his number stacks up against the rest of the 2026 rookie class.
Every one of the top eight picks in 2026 is rated higher than Lendeborg. Cam Boozer, who Lendeborg outplayed in the summer league championship, is at 79.
Keaton Wagler, the No. 5 pick, and Darius Acuff Jr., the No. 7 pick, both got 75. Mikel Brown Jr., the No. 6 pick, and Kingston Flemings, the No. 8 pick, were each given 74.
The gap between Boozer and Lendeborg is too wide, but the bigger problem is that Wagler, Brown, Acuff and Flemings are all ahead of him. Lendeborg may not have the same long-term upside as those guys, but right now he looks better than they do.
He just finished a college season in which he ranked second in BPM, trailing only Boozer, and his size and versatility should make him one of the more impactful rookies in the 2026-27 season. He ought to be at least three points higher.
Brandin Podziemski is the next Warrior who got shortchanged. To crack the top 100, a player needs at least an 81, and Podz should be sitting exactly there. Instead, he’s tied with Draymond Green and sits two points behind Kristaps Porzingis at 81.
That doesn’t feel right, especially once durability is part of the equation. Podziemski should be ahead of both of them.
He’s also in the same range as Shaedon Sharpe and Matas Buzelis, two players who can score more consistently, but Podziemski brings more to winning with his help defense, rebounding and three-point shooting. If he carries over what he did late last season - 18.1 PPG over the final two months - his rating should climb fast.
De’Anthony Melton is the third Warrior who got hit too hard. He’s tied with Moses Moody and Brandon Williams for the team’s eighth-best rating, and Moody’s 76 makes some sense if the torn patellar tendon he’s dealing with keeps him out most of the 2026-27 season.
Melton, though, shouldn’t be lumped in with Williams.
Williams has the edge as an inside-the-arc scorer, but Melton is the better shooter, and even if someone wants to argue Williams is the better offensive player overall, Melton’s defense gives him the clear edge. The rating is being dragged down by his three-point number and durability score.
He shot 29.4 percent from deep last season, but his career mark is 35.8 percent, so a rebound there seems likely. And while injuries have followed him, he should be fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered in November 2024.
What really stands out is that Melton is only one point higher than Porzingis in durability. That doesn’t add up.
In Other News...
Warriors Fans Will Hate Where This Latest Spurs Hype Went
Charles Barkley already has the basketball world talking again, this time with a comparison that will land hard in the Bay Area. After praising Spurs guards Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, Barkley floated the idea that San Antonios young backcourt could grow into something reminiscent of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, a bar so high it practically comes with a warning label. The Spurs do have reasons to dream, with Victor Wembanyama anchoring a promising core and a pair of talented guards giving the franchise a new kind of upside.
For Warriors fans, the bigger issue is how casually those comparisons get made before anything has been earned. Curry and Thompson helped define an era, and matching even a slice of that success is a long way off for any young pair, no matter how much talent they show early. San Antonio also has its own roster questions to sort through as this core develops, and until those pieces settle, the new Steph and Klay talk feels more like a provocation than a prediction. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors Just Lost The Lakers Threat They Feared Most
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The Lakers have already shifted their attention toward Luka Doncic in the wake of James departure, but the immediate effect for the Warriors is simpler: one fewer proven problem to game-plan around. Even if Los Angeles still has enough talent to matter, the absence of James removes the player who has so often made that rivalry feel heavier, more physical and a little more personal for Golden State. [Read more 🡒]
Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]